


Duties

by mikochan_noda



Series: おかえり [5]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Paternal Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-29 23:14:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11451075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikochan_noda/pseuds/mikochan_noda
Summary: They have a routine.And when this comforting routine is broken, Sasuke becomes concerned.





	Duties

**Author's Note:**

  * For [whiteplums](https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiteplums/gifts).



> Requested prompt by [whiteplum](http://whiteplum.tumblr.com/): _They have a routine: Sakura sweeps. Sasuke does the laundry. Sarada washes the dishes. It's their chore hour and Sasuke enjoys it very much. it gives him a sense of normalcy and shows him that there are constants in his life. So when Sarada started coming home later and starts spending time doing things not in the routine, Sasuke becomes very very concerned._
> 
> posted last 11282014  
> [[LINK](http://lilmikomiko.tumblr.com/post/103761253725/)]

With her increasing absences, he starts to take on her workload - as she often returns home exhausted. Her mother would often be the first to greet her, hands aglow like the dim worry in the green of her eyes. They’ll sit by the kitchen, cleaning her wounds first, as he cleans the dishes, hands submerged in suds.  
  
It feels a bit different, to have his hands roughened now by domesticity.  
  
Yet he could still glean from these same hands - of bulging veins and burned spots - are the scars that their time had brought on them.  
  
Sarada is a few weeks away to become thirteen years old - the legitimate age for her to become an enlisted _shinobi_ within the Konoha ranks. As a soldier himself, he should have expected that sooner or later, Sarada would be sent on missions, take on adversaries, fight her own battles.  
  
His own daughter, _out there_ , exposed to danger, without him to protect her…  
  
Even if his daughter was the most promising _shinobi_ in her generation, It’s still hard to reconcile that this grim-faced child who told her mother that she could heal the rest of her bruises, to that tiny child that tried not to sniffle with a scrape on her knee when she chased him not to go.  
  
It’s ironic, that he’s the one who’s contemplating to ask for Sarada to stay for a couple of days.  
  
However, trust works in both ways.  
  
This time, Sasuke sets a plate of _onigiri_ filled with _okaka_ and a bowl of sweet-plums on the living room table. His little girl suddenly quiets from berating her non-present teammates, sits upright on the couch, and politely gives thanks - before grabbing a roll.  
  
“Sarada.”  
  
She’s trying not to fidget under his stare, at the sudden silence between them. He lets her finish her piece and eat the whole thing before he speaks again.  
  
“On your chuunin promotions,”  
  
Those dark almond-shaped eyes grew wide in surprise, as if she’s entirely anxious about the fact that _he knows_. Sasuke’s not blind to it, as a prodigy, and the first of her clan - she’s been, will forever be, burdened with high, almost suffocating expectations in her entire life.  
  
This is the only thing he could do :  let her know she can always come home.  
  
No matter what happens.  
  
“Do your best.” He pokes her head with a smile, because Papa’s little girl can never hide secrets from him forever. “I’ll do the dishes, for the meanwhile.”  


End file.
